Date

July 6, 2014

Author

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(The following text was originally published on Facebook on June 9, 2014)

We have investigated the massacre scene from “When the Mountains Tremble”.

I met the woman eyewitness who speaks in our 1982 film, as well as 2 men who were in the village at the time of the killings – her husband was killed that day as were the fathers of the two men[1]. They guided us to their former village of Batzul, leaving our vehicle on a dead end dirt road and then hiking a mile on a narrow trail, along a ravine and through cornfields, until we arrived at the scene of the massacre. Nothing remains of that village except for the faint foundation of a schoolhouse. We had to crawl under a barbed wire fence to get to the ruins of the schoolhouse because, according to our guides, what used to be the village is now private property. But by comparing images from our 1982 footage with the woman eyewitness today, it became clear to us that she was the same woman. And the 2 men were able to positively identify grieving family members who also appear at the scene in our 1982 footage. Comparing the geography of the surrounding mountains from our images of the Army helicopters landing left no doubt in our minds that the village where we filmed in 1982 was Batzul.

When we arrived there in 1982 in Army helicopters, Tom Sigel and I were told, and we thought, that we were in the outskirts of Chajul. Returning now 32 years later, our guides told us that shortly before the massacre, the Army had convened a meeting in Chajul, calling together the leaders of villages in the area and telling them that they had 72 hours to decide whether to collaborate with the Army or face consequences. Our guides told us that the village of Batzul decided to collaborate with the Army and formed a civilian patrol. What the woman eyewitness told me at that traumatic moment when I interviewed her in 1982 regarding the people who came and attacked wearing soldiers’ uniforms was true, and now we had the opportunity to hear the full story from her and our two male guides, all victims of the massacre. They added that the guerrillas knew that Batzul had decided to collaborate with the Army, and the guerrillas pretended to be Army soldiers in order to trick the civilian patrol members into gathering in front of the schoolhouse. When the Comisión para el Esclarecimiento Histórico (CEH) published its findings in 1999, it found that the massacre was initiated by guerrillas dressed as soldiers to trick the members of the civilian patrol into gathering in front of the schoolhouse. This is what the CEH says then happened[2]:

“The Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP) also used camouflage to trick the civilian patrol members, capture them and execute them for having collaborated with the Army. On May 17, 1982 at 6am, 3 men dressed as Army soldiers, in camouflage, arrived in the village of Batzul, municipality of Chajul, department of Quiché, but there were some 30 men dressed in olive green [fatigues] who were hidden in the outskirts of the village. They got all the men together and told them that they had to go on patrol to guard the bridge over the River Chicá. But before that they wanted the men to meet in the school in Batzul. They led the 17 men in a line to the school. They tied them all up and killed them one by one.”

What our guides from Batzul, victims of the massacre, asked of us is that we make clear that the guerrillas and not the Army carried it out. We intend to make a correction that will clarify what happened in this scene in both “When the Mountains Tremble” and “Granito”. It stands as a reminder of the terrible human costs of the violence in 1982-83, when the Guatemalan Government launched a massive offensive against the Maya Ixil people – part of a state sponsored campaign targeting civilians and which led to the CEH’s findings that during the years of the internal armed conflict 93% of the deaths were at the hands of the Armed Forces. What we have learned from this investigation will inform our new film “500 Years”. We remain committed to historical accuracy in our work and to supporting efforts to secure full human rights for all the people of Guatemala within a freely functioning democracy.

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We engage, educate and increase understanding of human rights using film & digital technology. For over 25 years Skylight has been committed to producing artistic, challenging and socially relevant documentary films on issues of human rights and the quest for justice. Whatever the medium, we believe that stories, and the people behind them, are paramount.